definite detention has revived military commissions. and as we've seen as well he has expanded targeted killings so they've increased under the obama administration many fold and he's even authorized the killing of a u.s. citizen so you know i think yeah where and you know there is a bad state of civil liberties under the obama administration world renowned author and scholar noam chomsky believes the obama administration has changed gears and excel aerated illegal practice into overdrive the shift between bush's policies and obama's. push bush's policy was to kidnap people. whatever you thought about them. take them to guantanamo or bagram or some other tortured to number the threats of information out of the obama supporters just to kill. killing them all over the world. another is the targeting drone killing of

anwar walk eat and american born cleric u.s. drone strikes during obama's first two years in office exceeded the total carried out during bush's tenure president obama described the walking as the leader of external operations for al qaeda in the arabian peninsula human rights groups which voiced international opposition against bush counterterrorism policies quickly condemned a walkie killing journalist jeremy scahill says obama's policies have drifted far from his political roots a president mccain doing the exact same thing that president obama is doing would have been denounced by a lot of liberals and so we're at one of those dangerous moments in u.s. history and we saw it a bit with clinton in the ninety's where a democrat who campaigned on a pledge to change you know the country in the world has actually pushed a right wing agenda further forward than

a republican rip up republican could have if they remained in power or they took power or expanded power as obama gears up for his reelection campaign civil liberty groups that believed his words the first time around are now left to judge the commander in chief on his actions america is to moderate he is represented by a president who studied him on the rule of law and is now armed with a duty to carry it out but critics say as long as obama raised by his own rules the constitution and his promise of change both remain a compromise up or not artsy new york. and i later former chief prosecutor of the gun tom a military commissions tells our team that president obama not only followed in bush's footsteps he went even further. he took office the first thing he did was sign an order. closing guantanamo within one year of his order. which was signed in january of two thousand and nine and we're sitting here today and

most all open the military commissions have resumed. and in my view the president just didn't have the balls to follow through with doing the right thing candidate obama you know said all the right things about justice and american values and closing guantanamo and doing away with military commissions and upholding the rule of law and then once he gets in office you know he didn't just embrace the bush policies he kissed him on the lips and ran with them and has advanced them further than president bush ever did. and watch the full interview with colonel morris davis in just over an hour here on our team the defense bill signed by the u.s. president also imposes sanctions on iran and adds penalties against the country's central bank in an effort to hamper tehran's nuclear program in response to these lawmakers states threaten to close the strait of hormuz the world's most important oil export route adding to the situation is iran's enable drills in the persian

gulf during which they tested missiles director of the they were a base center for middle east studies dr he bear believes washington's actions are adding fuel to an already highly flammable situation. the united states is trying and doing its best and every day. they are adding new sanctions against iran and i think iran is going. away with its nuclear program and it will not stop the. exploitation of the oil of iran will be threatening in my opinion even though maybe iran will not close the strait of but it may disturb the navigation and in this case with the presence of pensive military but a ship from both sides we risk to have a small conflict and this small conflict can increase and to be bigger and bigger

and may lead to a war and region. still around here in our team new year. new york. city find out why also. the man who brought a taste of something new to russia and find out why the caesar salad is now in almost every many of the country in our special new series. grim prospect or had a for you were single currency in the new year as the region's leaders warn of. in this most severe test in decades twenty twelve marks ten years since europeans

first held the euro notes and coins in their hands but with a recession a looming the sense of optimism that greeted the united currency at its inception seems to have evaporated as our. reports. the birth of an ambitious project a common currency celebrated with no less than a big bang. the ury to be over strong europe. the war. ten years down the road the euro is not in the best of shape. a spiraling sovereign debt crisis credit downgrades rising interest rates tens of millions unemployed budget cuts and violent protests.

the worst crisis in the. world for what began as a step towards a united europe has become a race against time with e.u. leaders scrambling to keep it together. euro skeptics along argue that the euro was flawed from the start pursuing a political dream above all else well they say lumping together polar opposite economies like that of greece and germany into a monetary union could never work economic rationality has been thrown out of the window in the pursuit of this goal and we're now reaping the consequences of a couple that with internal squabbles and deadlocks there has to be a song from somewhere that some economic entity that is credible is going to back every euro zone and the only two or three entities that can do that one is european central bank the other is basically the german government and neither of

them right now are willing to do it but this exhibit shows the journey of the european union and the creation of the single currency the documented events of history that explain why it would have been appealing to decision makers at the time so much so the crux of the fundamentals may have been overlooked or ignored which brings us to this point ten years after the creation of the euro its appeal has waned and despite last ditch efforts to save it its future is still uncertain in the spirit of the new year we asked for some predictions but one can be sure of is that this crisis is going to be a long and bumpy road however if you would ask me do you think that the euro would still exist in ten years time lapse or would be yes they can't bring themselves to admit that it was a mistake and so i'm afraid we risk the very thing they purport to fear which is a disorderly breakup of the euro caused by having tried to keep it together for too long downgrades almost certainly i think you'll see a french downgrade i still think this is solvable if the political will is shown in

certain member states to allow for what is called solidarity in europe. and if not if not we are in for a huge huge recession in europe sitting my prediction that at least greece will leave the euro in the next year and what happens beyond that is unpredictable euro watchers may have divergent views and the single currency is future but it seems whichever way the euro goes it won't be painless does or cilia r.t. brussels while the arab league parliament has urged an antibodies to monitor mission and syria violence is still playing up in the country despite observers presence there since last week the organization's peace plan calls for an ant fighting on the removal of security forces from cities universal peace federation and bathory dr may her solemn says there are preconditions that hamper our neighbors or risk from remaining impartial i believe they are partly by as the as

they are being affected totally by some out of state powers that see a region in such as cut. major egyptian officials and international cars and europeans even at the level of the european community and the united states for sure though this international pressure to towards the observers will give them via is the only biased doctors where they should not covered as independently as enough no if they were to release any public statements this will effect tarnish even the whole process and this will affect the transparency of the whole measures that see and the process itself by monitoring independently that is basically enough and let there be one distance between the loyalists and the opposition is as such i mean as observers they have they have to be at one distance between the opposition as to that is of bashar al assad and to the loyalists of his government. and these days

of satellite navigation and google earth we're all used to looking closely at almost all corners of the globe although israel keeps prying eyes out but now it's one former ally in the region turkey is to launch a satellite that could blur the lines of israel's former protection and leave it sharply in the focus of the world parties policy or reports. israel's leaders are worried and they've good reason to be in just a matter of months they'll be nothing stopping satellite companies from getting up close and personal. because of the river. security. to enable me to very high resolution imagery. until now only the americans had the technology capable of taking images greater than two meters per pixel resolution and american law stopped u.s. companies from distributing the pictures the americans very sensitive security

demands of the scrutiny that plays along with it which means even with google earth one consume into israel but only so far look at specific parts of israel. blurrier than any other place in the world that i've checked but that's about to change turkey is putting the finishing touches to military satellite it plans to launch within the next two years the gawked took satellite will be capable of taking the very pictures tel aviv doesn't want distributed and there are no american star legal qualms in turkey about upsetting its photosensitive neighbor took it could be sold directly or invaded through some of these injury to him of his office right and that's the fear here especially because tensions between tel aviv a day and co are at an all time low and aid for to the attempt on gaza two years ago that left nine two x. did and cause expulsion of the israeli ambassador has tel aviv nervously weighing its options the irony is that it was not so long ago that the gawked accepted. it

would have spelled good news for the two countries cooperated extensively often sharing military intelligence but whereas turkey was once israel's a closest ally in the muslim world today it is ankara that is asserting itself without a television as a powerful player in the region trying to say that is really not to be granted the special. services. to have this saying these are military and the playground of. the phone companies everyone should abide to the same law to have the same standards one satellite is barely enough to put israel's picture shy world in a spin but this is not a country that wants its neighbors knowing its business especially with an arab world in flux and israel fast losing former friends policy r t the veil on israel. we're finding more stories news and analysis. of what's there the price.

tag to a disagreement over hundreds of millions of dollars. and the right hands find out how. bad drugs by mistake that are much more. all of our best. now in the beginning. very festive. today in

new york just before midnight after hundreds tore down the barricades. it was a failed attempt to return to the place where it all started months ago meanwhile the protesters were undeterred and marched on lower manhattan first began the movement has spread across the u.s. and the country's economic analyst says the number of those dissatisfied only grow because the authorities can propose adequate measures to tackle the economic problems. by wall street movement has mostly given voice to a sense of frustration and anger about. justices both real and perceived that a lot of people have about the economy i think it's. that the u.s. economy doesn't work doesn't work very well overall. for our present. unemployment is probably under reporting and it's quite high the high level of college debt that people are coming out with young people in student loan debt and their own

abilities to get a jobs or b. jobs that pay them enough to live and pay back their debt makes very clear that the united states has serious economic problems we haven't really seen anything like a suggestion about a different plan or a different way of organizing the economy come out of the or occupy wall street movement yet now it's also a very young movement so that may evolve somewhere down the line but this looks to me like the early stages of something with a lot more to calm most of the story yet to be written so to speak i i think what we're seeing is frustrate and anger people beginning to coalesce around that frustration and anger but i for one haven't seen real proposals on economic policy yet we may see a bit more of that this year as it's election time and policy issues i think authorities had hoped the movement would kind of fizzle out or go away and when it didn't want to back and got more and more attention and more and more adherents there was a little bit of a heavy handed over response by authorities that involved using force part of the reason it's a problem is because what it tends to do is bring out more protesters and raise public sympathy for the protesters the ham handed and overly marshall response to

protest has actually helped to build the occupy wall street movement. and some other stories from around the world south korea's president says the korean peninsula is a turning point and he is ready to resume nuclear talks with the north but he warned against any provocations by pyongyang the comments come from the comments come after north korea vowed in a new year's message that it will bolster its military and to fan the son of the weight leader kim ja nailed to the death tb of whom has now been declared the supreme commander of the armed forces and his ruling party leader following his father's death in the middle of december. them government and the un have deployed more troops to bring escalating tribal violence under control in the state of john gray on saturday armed tribe members wept through the town of people war home to their rivals torching buildings and seizing livestock they forced scores

from their homes almost a thousand people have been killed in recent months in tribal violence in the region. in a controversial move the nigerian government has announced a plan to scrap fuel subsidies pushing up oil prices that oil rich nation government has said it will use the money to develop the industry's poor infrastructure labor unions have been down the move calling for mass protests many fear this will add to the tensions caused by the recent wave of sectarian violence in the country. riot police in south bahrain used rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse protesters following the funeral of a teenage boy killed in a demonstration the opposition says a fifteen year old died after being hit in the chest by a gas canister fired at close range they have been frequent stand ups during the year between police and activists the many forms from the country sunni moderate. protests continue in turkey following last week's botched government airstrike that

killed thirty five kurdish civilians police pushed back to mr rader's east to stamboul with water cannon and tear gas turkey has seen a wave of violent protests over the last few days demanding that the government be held accountable for the attack in which the air force thought it was targeting militants along the iraqi border turkish officials have promised a full investigation into the incident. with the tallies among american soldiers in afghanistan dropping in twenty one when the taliban commanders believe it's because the u.s. has lost its taste for combat our military contributor says the only reason for washington to keep up its involvement in afghanistan is to fight the thriving drug production there. you know when the new year has just clicked in let's take a look at what to expect for the united states and there are nato allies in afghanistan and pakistan the white house has to realize that the only way to

improve their relationships would be to minimize its political and military affairs pakistan and afghanistan and if there is any excuse for the u.s. military presence in afghanistan it has nothing to do we have the terrorist threat it is the threat that is the only justifiable reason for the u.s. military forces to deal directly affected efficiently. why does it take to become an entrepreneur in russia in our series on pathfinders business r.t. talks to some ex-pats have discovered the country's potential. well anyone who's been to russia might have been surprised to find a caesar salad cropping up on virtually every restaurant menu lettuce garlic sauce

and parmesan are hardly traditional russian fare well the answer to this riddle is henrik windsor a danish respiratory who came here in the dying days of the soviet union running a business in russia. is challenging for different reasons. in the west the risk in the reward. equation applies to russia all there's a great opportunity in the market your return on investment here is higher than you would expect in in the west but that is justified by the relatively high risk all that one has to face in the market it was nine hundred ninety one i came in september and the collapse of the soviet union was six months later i was new in the country i didn't speak the language but what was interesting and challenging at the same time was that things were changing really what was changing and how things were going change for it was totally unpredictable so opening up

a restaurant in russia was something truly unique back then there were no restaurants in russia there was a total of two restaurants and this was basically the third restaurant told mum in the soviet union a country of three hundred eighty million people and we chose to open up a swiss restaurant. with fondue one steak to atar and seasonal solvent and things like that it's funny the story about the caesar salad the situation of russia is quite unique because the season salad is on literally every menu in the whole country why that is so in my opinion is that when we play the key dish it was a caesar salad it was prepared in front of the guests by the waitresses a lot of people have to learn how to make this into a salad as the years went on and new restaurants opened up one of the things that everybody knew was to make a caesar salad so it was

a recipe that was kind of passed out among the few professionals in the restaurant business in those days the influence of the pioneers yes you felt it but really it was later on. one realized the profound impact. that one had in those days at the time it wasn't that it was just surviving it was just trying to do things right and get the business going in the beginning and in the first couple of years it was very much this pioneer work opening up a new concept by the late ninety's it was very much starting to become a more competitive market you had to be good you had to offer something special because in the beginning you opened up a restaurant it was for the next day you didn't have to try very hard so i set out really to make a strategic shift away from just opening up restaurants to really implementing it.

customer service and guests a distraction and that started with a training program because the restaurant business has a relatively weak turnover of staff we would teaching bringing knowledge to a huge number of people all of the workforce for a while and many of them left all the restaurant and so forth so we were the professional kind of growth model for professional knowledge in the restaurant business how do you pizza later to become bill patio was hugely successful likewise the planet sushi as general manager of ross in two or throw these many years. in the breast three years ago i started opening up my own restaurant now the same restaurants but as a franchise the have today twelve restaurants it's a business that requires a lot of affection and every kind of execution that's a personal touch oh it's the small things that count but that's not special for

russia it's everywhere but surely it's a requirement for russia because here again the competitive environment has become so tight that you need to be really really good to be successful. and of all we bring you more from our special pathfinder series every day here on r.t.s. meet some of the business trailblazers in the russian capital so stay tuned for that if you can surely though people of alan his gas discuss what's in store for us in two thousand and twelve but before that i mean back with a reminder today's top stories.

the close up team has been to don you stop first place to the most ambitious football club in the world. naldo r g goes to the far east where the timber industry affects the legendary siberian tigers where the ancient native community loses its way in the modern world. and where the country's mineral wealth starts its way across the ocean. well come to

the come bars creature russia close up. wealthy british style some time to. market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max cons or for a no holds barred look at the mobile financial headlines tune into kinds a report on our. download the official antti up location on the phone all i pod touch from the top story. which all teach life on the go. video on demand on t.v.'s money fueled costs and already says feed stock now with up.

welcome back you're watching our top stories president obama puts his signature on the economy bill that could see terror suspects held indefinitely without trial but says he will not strictly follow some of the aspects that entails critics say passings now has not always been true to u.s. war. recession alarm bells and gloomy predictions sounded the start of a new year for the region's leaders warn a second most severe test in decades twenty marks ten years after. made its way into people's wallets. and israel secrets could soon be put on there of the turkish lands. to patrol the skies in two years at the moment israel cannot

be penetrated by the likes of google. now what changes can we expect in world politics and the economy in two thousand and twelve the answers are in our debate that's next. and. we welcome to. what does the year two thousand and twelve hold for the world is trivial and the year before you will set the trend school stay in power and you will fall with the protests that started around the world continue apace and will this.